Rudder vibration when turning to Starboard; rudder size

[Capt Paul]

Hello all,

I have noticed when turning to Starboard at higher RPMs 3000+ I get a significant vibration off the rudder. So much so I can feel it at the helm station. Anybody else notice this??

Regards,
Paul

[jcollins]

Paul,
Yup! Me too. I was going to have the running gear checked when I pull the boat in the fall. Maybe we both hit the same rocks? Anyone else?

[DougSea]

If you both get the same vibration, turning the same way (starboard), I'd guess that it's a function of the prop wash (which is rotating) hitting some portion of the rudder differently than on a turn to port. I know on my outboard which had a transom mount transducer you'd want to mount the transducer on the 'downward' side of the prop.

Doug

[JackK]

I had this problem with my 2003 28. In talking with my dealer, they said that Albin had made a change to the shape of the rudder and suggested I should have mine cut down. I had them cut it and the boat handles much better with no shuddering.

I believe I took a photo this spring after having the prop tuned. I'll try to find it and post it.

Jack

[chiefrcd]

I have not noticed a vibration but a speeds above 3000 rpm's my boat is very hard to steer. Hard as in it takes a lot of muscle to make it turn. I have a new SeaStar steering cylinder and the system seems to be working fine.....just really takes some effort to steer it more than a few degrees port or starboard. Would be interested to see the rudder modification however. I've often wondered it the hard steering was caused by such a big rudder. On comparable size boats the rudders are usually half the size of the one on my Albin.

[Capt Paul]

In regards to the rudder size , I noticed this reduction in size at one of the local boat shows last spring. I asked the dealer at the time why the decreased it size and he really didn't have an answer for me. This may be the reason though. I had a new Seastar ram put in last Novemeber and was beginning to think I may need to blead the system a little to help with this.

Good info from every one!

Thanks
Paul

[Elizabeth Ann]

So it's not just me!

Like Chief, I don't have a vibration, but at speed going to starboard is a doozie. In fact, it seems to go straight I often have the wheel almost hard to starboard then if I need more starboard there is not much there. I had to come to port a bit and then lay over to starboard.

I just replaced my seastar cylinder near 7/4, I had a leak in the old one. It didn't seem to affect steering though.

Running autopilot doesn't seem to encounter the same problem.

JackK

Was this change made after 2003?

[JackK]

Elizabeth Ann -

I believe the rudder design was changed late in 2004 or early 2005.
Standish Boat Yard in Tiverton, RI modified mine before launch 2005.
The rudder was cut down by almost a third. The cut was just aft of the zinc and proceeds even deeper towards the bottom of the rudder. I cannot put my hands on the pictures. If I stop by Standish this weekend, I will try to get a photo from one of the 28's on the hard deck.

The first thing I noticed was that the wheel was much easier to turn and starboard turns carved cleanly. It also seems to have improved handling in reverse but that just may be that I've finally gotten better at it.

Jack

[jcollins]

Jack,
Very interested in this. What was the cost?

[JackK]

Well it took me a while to remember but here is a photo of my rudder before and after cut-down in size. It made a big difference in starboard turning capabilities and cavitation. Standish Boat Yard (RI dealer) took care of this for me.



Jack
____________________
2003 28 TE Dogonit

[Elizabeth Ann]

Thanks Jack! I to forgot about this thread. EA is all ready in the water, I guess I'll try to look into it next year when I have the prop reconditioned.

[Pitou]

When I was taking delivery of my Engine Box 28 spring of '04 at Standish Boat Yard, Albin was there trying to correct over steering issues to starboard with the new (at the time ) flush deck model. They were partially filling 50 gallon drums with water and shifting them around the cockpit to try to engineer a solution. They thought over steering to starboard had something to do with the engine in the flush deck being lowered in the bilge and shifted to the stem from the original engine box model. Shortly thereafter they adjusted the rudder size to correct this issue as it was later done on Jack's DogOnit.

Steering my boat to port is easy and to starboard can be hard at higher RPM's, but slowing down into a fair turn is not a bad idea anyway.

I always thought more rudder was a good thing, but now I'm wondering about a rudder adjuustment.

[JackK]

Mine is an '03 Flush Deck model.

Jack
___________________
2003 28 TE Dogonit

[Merry Kate]

Wow JackK - that is a heck of a job on your rudder. I believe that Albin took to fitting the "barn door" rudders sometime in the late '90s due to complaints about low speed handling. However, at the same time the engine offerings grew from high 200s HP to 330+. To transmit that power, props went from 3- to 4-blade. I can tell from that big wheel you got at lot of HP in there.

Maybe that combo with a big rudder isn’t the best in terms of vibration and efficiency at speed. Here is the stock running gear on my 97 28TE (250 Cummins through 1.4:1 gear and 18x21 3-blade cupped prop):

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w35/ ... 140389.jpg

No vibration issues, but she don’t back down to starboard worth a crap and not at all to port. Forward handling is great at any speed and conditions though. All in all the factory did a great job with my setup, which is good cause I did'nt know jack.


You usually see tiny spade rudders on twin engine boats because low speed maneuvering is all done with gears and the small rudders are more efficient at planing speed. Likewise, I guess you could say that TEs don't need big rudders now that bow thrusters are standard. Maybe Albin can still get rudders from the older castings.